The saying goes that the facts don’t lie, which means when looking at the raw statistics, McLaren’s maiden season in Formula E will likely be judged overall as not a good one. Eighth in the teams’ championship – some 216 points behind champions Envision Racing – and only one rostrum across the 16 races is hardly something to write home about for a racing entity with such a successful motorsport heritage.
From the outside looking in, this was a squad with winning potential having acquired the foundations of the all-conquering Mercedes outfit that for two consecutive seasons had won the drivers’ and teams’ championships. When the German manufacturer decided that Formula E no longer ticked the boxes, motorsport CEO Toto Wolff and team principal Ian James helped broker a buyout from McLaren. The British squad had decided that 2023 was the time to move away from the role of supplier, having provided the batteries to the championship’s Gen2 machines, and into the category as its own entry.
